The Case for Rick Perry

5/27/2011 | anon

[Flightdeck]

See, I have no problem at all with referring to the southern border counties as ‘Criminal Alien Invader’ country. But don’t pretend we’re stone-cold idiots and say ‘wetback’ is behavioral. And don’t delude yourself into thinking throwing slurs and 20-pt fonts around makes a factless opinion any more persuasive.

[Dr. Sivana]

Now, you were writing about “misbehaving” girls? Virgins who marry “misbehaving” boys contract HPV, too.

No need to put misbehaving in quotation marks. We know that as promiscuity and general misbehavior increases, so do rates of HPV. Most women who marry in the U.S. are adults, so they can decide for themselves whether:

1. The fiance should be tested (unfortunately, easy, common tests are not available, but a urologist can do one).
2. She decides as a grown woman that she doesn't want to take a chance or scare a fiance off by forcing him to take the test, and goes and DECIDES FOR HERSELF to get the expensive vaccine with its included risks, in order to lessen the odds of getting the handful of strains out of more than 100 (albeit worse ones) that Gardasil deals with. If her fiance is circumcised, there is a considerably lower chance of his being infected. A grown woman can take these factors into consideration and decide for herself. She doesn't need Gov. Perry to decide for her.

None of the deaths were confirmed to be due to the vaccine.

Puh-leeze. That reminds me of the old official position of the American Tobacco Institute that maintained for decades that there was no proof that the use of tobacco products caused lung cancer, as correlation is not necessarily causation.

The teen death rate from all causes is 62 per 100,000 across the US. [ . . . ] Most of those are boys, but still: In 10 million girls, 30 deaths are not outside the rate for the age group.
Once you remove car accidents, suicides, drug overdoses, and also those suffering from severe childhood diseases that frequently lead to early death, the number gets much, MUCH, lower. Unless the autopsy can show a brain aneurysm, undiagnosed heart condition or similar, there is not a whole lot left. Thirty is the CDC number, other sources claim 50 or 80. Besides the deaths, the number of non-trivial side-effects reported (e.g. kidney failure, seizures, arthritis, etc.) number in the thousands.

The complicating pre-existing conditions (birth control pills, obesity, smoking, other medications) that you mentioned in the earlier post means that a large majority of those given the vaccine are likely to be less than ideal candidates for it. This is yet another reason why a mandatory one-size-fits-all remedy is a bad approach.

While some vaccine scares have proven to be untrue or exaggerated, we don't have to take the governor's, the FDA's, or the pharmaceutical company's word for it. When they are wrong, it turns out to be a whopper. It wasn't long ago that a Hepatitis-B vaccine mandated for newborns in several states caused a very high rate of colon separation before changes were made. That is a nasty way to get a large scale trial.

I have had Lyme Disease, so I was interested in finding out more about that vaccine as it was being developed, but decided to hold off. It turns out that the effectiveness was not great, and there were other problems that me glad that I held off. The U.S. held onto the weak-live polio vaccine for so long that at one point, the ONLY cases of polio in the country came from it (about 7). Since then, the U.S. has wisely switched to the less effective, more expensive but less risky dead-cell version.

I personally know of an entire classroom in Canada that became quite sick from a bad batch of (I think) mumps vaccine. One girl died, another has a permanently compromised immune system. The rest ultimately recovered. Now, this had nothing to do with the vaccine itself, but is a not-so gentle reminder that one must be careful with what one injects one's body with. It might well be worth it to prevent a deadly illness, but I'll just let my kids contract chicken pox the old fashioned way rather than letting the vaccine wear off and let them be at risk again as young adults.

I am not looking to take the chicken pox vaccine off the market, and might even consider that a more thoroughly tested Gardasil might have a role. I would reserve government mandates only be considered for serious diseases that are not already eliminated (smallpox, being an example that has been eliminated) that can be spread through casual contact (e.g. coughed upon, shaking hands, riding next to on a subway, etc.).

HPV, and even cervical cancer itself, do not fall into that category.

[TXnMA]

What you perceive as "slurs" was intended as a short-form admonition against rating Perry's so-called "conservatism" against the liberal backdrop of Øbozo, The People's Repubic of Austin, "Criminal Alien Invader" country -- or that of of a liberal academic environment.

What follows is an example drawn from personal life experience (of which, I may well have more than the two of you combined...). It is indeed a caveat against (you two) Perry enthusiasts falling into the same error that I experienced.

(As an aid to illustrating the experience/reality, I have done you the courtesy of literally "drawing you a [pair of] picture[s]"...)

~~~~~~~~~~

When we lived in MA, I was a personal friend of Scott Brown and Gail and their two daughters. I was also one of Scott's early supporters and campaigners who helped put him into the MA legislature.

Against the backdrop of MA liberalism, (and with "Chappaquiddick Teddy" as my US Senator and "Bahney Fwank" as my US rep) Scott shone as a relatively bright conservative "star":

When Kennedy passed on to his eternal sentence, I was one of the first to personally encourage Scott to go for Kenedy's vacant Senate Seat.

When he won it, that placed him in focus against the backdrop of true, Tea Party style conservatism:

...and Scott's liberal flaws became painfully obvious. (BTW, the three "stars" in the two images are the exact, same vector graphic objects. Only the fill color of the square changed.)

Suffice it to say that I no longer support Scott Brown for any national office, (and I am blissfully detached from the liberal hellhole that is Massachusetts politics.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Now that I live in (and am politically active in) rural/small-town Texas, I am similarly able to view Perry against the true conservative backdrop of solidly conservative, patriotic Texans, and...

Perry and his political behavior look far less appealing when compared to true Texas Conservatism.

Life lesson: Compared to Øbozo, the leftist Criminal Alien Invader, or Austin / academic liberalism, Perry looks pretty good. Compared to real Texas conservatism, Perry looks little better than what remains on your boots after a trip across the cowlot. (Just the fact that little Ricky bought his very first votes -- and has never stopped -- should make you stop and think...)

~~~~~~~~~

There is no way I will support Perry for any office (or in the primary). Should the Convention (G_d forbid!) select him as the Republican standard bearer, I will compare him to both his liberal opponents, and to genuine conservative standards -- and then decide if I can hold my nose long enough to vote to put another Scott Brown into Federal office.

(The graphics are far from optimized, but you have received more of my time and effort than you warrant. Furthermore, I am 'way over my domain's filespace limit -- so the above grapics may vanish soon...)

[Sarajevo]

No one wants to raise gas taxes so toll roads are the only option left.

So, just rescind Article 8, para. 7-a [however, that one-fourth (1/4) of such net revenue from the motor fuel tax shall be allocated to the Available School Fund;] from the Texas State Constitution. That should free up plenty of funds without resorting to selling public infrastructure to foreign companies. (Of course, the passage of HB1112 by the Texas Senate on 11 May 2011 virtually guarantees that all Texas infrastructure is for sale)

[hocndoc]

The chicken pox vaccine is an example of a vaccine that is not truly ethical: made from a human cell line derived from an abortion and only justifiable economically if it keeps mom and dad in the workplace. (and I’ve seen two toddlers with shingles after the vaccine.)

Speaking of Canada, here’s an excellent review with discussion about the documentation on adverse events —controls vs. subjects

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950172/?tool=pubmed

[BJClinton]

Right, and how do the schools get funded? Of course if we could shatter the death grip on our government by the teacher unions things could improve but...good luck with that.

[Sarajevo]

Right, and how do the schools get funded?

That's called property taxes (which are onerous), and the Texas State Lottery (a tax on stupidity).

Don't even get me started on school funding in Texas. The way I see it, school district superintendants could lose 2/3 of their cushy pay checks and still be in the 6-figure range.